Perch ‒ Anatomy

The body of the fish can be divided into three regions, head, trunk and tail. On the head of the fish we can see the mouth with sharp teeth used to capture pray, a pair of nostrils and the eyes.

On the trunk there are two sets of paired fins, the pectoral fins and the pelvic fins. Beside that it is possible to see four unpaired fins: the cranial and caudal dorsal fins, the anal fin, and the caudal fin.

The skeleton of the perch consists of bone and cartilage. Perch’s respiratory system is composed by four gills. Speaking about the digestive system, they have a large liver, a stomach, a small intestine that empties into the large intestine and an anus to expel undigested products.

Another organ that in present in this fish is the spleen that filters blood, produces white blood cells, and plays an active role in immunity.

They have a two-chambered heart with an atrium and a ventricle. The primary reproductive organs of the male are a paired of testes and females have single large ovary located in the same position as the male testes.

The nervous system consists on the central nervous system, composed of the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system, composed of those nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. A pair of elongated kidneys is the main excretory organ.